Number 66

By now the word here and elsewhere has spread about the fantastic new TRIBUTE FILM CLASSICS recording of Bernard Herrmann’s THE BATTLE OF NERETVA / THE NAKED AND THE DEAD. It’s hard to imagine a much better recording both in terms of sonic recording quality and pitch perfect to the spirit execution by both orchestra and conductor, The Moscow Symphony Orchestra and William Stromberg respectively. I feel it has set a new benchmark for re-recordings of film scores for it's outstanding presentation of a score that was not particularly well served in its OST release.

Much praise has been lavished upon Bill Stromberg and John Morgan for this outstanding recording and for which they are both totally deserving of, but they are only two of the members of the team responsible for the artistic quality of the TRIBUTE recordings, the third being Anna Bonn Stromberg. I feel it’s way past time that Anna gets the recognition she deserves for these nothing short of spectacular recordings. She is an integral and equal part of the TRI(for three)BUTE team.

Anna is officially recognized as the Executive Producer for the TRIBUTE FILM CLASSICS label and I couldn’t tell you exactly what all she does in that capacity, but I do know that she contributes a great deal musically and artistically to each and every TRIBUTE recording. She, like both Bill and John, is a composer and orchestrator and has performed other functions related to film scoring, including being an assistant (as well as orchestrator) to Chris Young, just to name one notable professional association. She has contributed her own compositions to several film scores, my personal favorite being Bill Stromberg’s OTHER VOICES. It’s always a pleasure to be able to acknowledge a female in this still very male centric profession and Anna is well deserving of such mention!

Perhaps to shed just a little light on a few of the things that Anna contributes to these recordings, I thought I’d re-post here what John Morgan said in a thread on the FSM boards about THE BATTLE OF NERETVA & THE NAKED AND THE DEAD:

"We all appreciate the wonderful comments on this release. Actually, it is more Bill’s baby than mine. I was more involved fixing up and orchestrating a few cues for the Steiner music. Bill and Anna did 90% of the copying of parts for our Herrmann recording. I mostly proofread the copies. It is not easy deciphering Herrmann’s hand written scores...especially as they were only in fair quality. And both Anna and I were in the booth making sure we got the recording we all wanted. I just wanted to say this is a team effort of Bill, Anna and myself."    

I'm sure there is much, much more that she does, but here John gives us a nice look at just some of those things as seen from the inside. This is definitely a 3 person team and I suppose since Morgan & Stromberg have been known as a team over the years with their pre-Tribute recordings as well as their own scores, it’s probably more or less automatic for many to think just of them when it comes to the TRIBUTE label, but it’s time to change that. The TRIBUTE “tri”nity is John, Bill AND Anna!  

For more background information on Anna, check out the TRIBUTE bio page: http://www.tributefilmclassics.com/about/

On a personal note, I wanted to say what a pleasure it has been for me to be able to write for the FSM website the past few years. During my unemployment, I was in desperate need to do something positive and constructive in my life without having work as my usual outlet. I also wanted to share with others what was on my mind in film music in a more formal way than on the boards (and I do like writing). Lukas gave me and my fellow bloggers carte blanche to write about what we want, how we want and when we want. I very much appreciate this opportunity, the outcome of which gave me more purpose and direction at a time when that was often hard to come by. Thank you so much Lukas!

Now that I’m permanently employed again, I do not have the copious amounts of uninterrupted time I used to have to work on the long article-like blogs that I tended to favor. To that end I will most likely write shorter, less formal entries, more in the spirit of a true blog. Still, if I get stoked by an idea requiring more, and I have the time, I’ll drop a full, formalized article here every now and then. Thanks for reading!

                           Epilogue

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